For the past six
years, I have been the Director of Ethnic Studies at The University of
Nebraska-Lincoln. After this
semester, I will be able to return full-time to a life of research, writing,
and teaching. Since 2008, I have
had the challenge of balancing teaching, researching, and writing along with
leading an Institute that houses three programs (African American and African
Studies, U.S. Latina/Latino and Latin American Studies, and Native American
Studies) with twenty-one faculty who are appointed in Ethnic Studies and also in
what’s called a “home” department (example would be 60% in English and 40% in Ethnic Studies).
The twenty-one faculty in our Institute represent seven departments in
the college.
Life in
administration is complex. On the
one hand, you become aware (and fascinated and/or appalled) by the workings of
the university and the college.
You get to go “behind the curtain” and observe/witness the many issues
occurring on a daily basis. You also become more aware of cultural, racial,
sexual, gendered, class differences in either subtle or overt ways. You also
notice how individuals cross those lines respectfully or not.
The first time I
walked into a Dean’s meeting with all the Chairs and Directors, I was struck by
the majority of white men. The
Dean and Associate Deans also were primarily white and male. Today, there is not much improvement
and people of color are vastly under represented in these ranks. Because of
this under representation, the few who are “of color,” “female,” “queer,” “come
from working class backgrounds,” may easily feel isolated because the
“majority” often do not understand how a person’s background and identity play
into discussions and perspectives. The unwritten expectation is that the
individual must fit into the majority code of conduct. These points of “diversity” make for
interesting moments of tension.
Here are some
examples: The person of color
“chair” who talks with her hands, who is loud, who needs to make her point with
a lengthy narrative, is shunned because she refuses to (1) remain quiet (2)
negotiate the way “they” discuss.
And how do “they” discuss?
The term “presenting your point elegantly,” is code for speaking in a
linear and minimalist narrative. Do not reveal your emotions. Keep your hands by your sides or on
your lap. I have also unfortunately seen the following too many times. A person of color will be speaking and
after she (it’s more often a woman) makes her case, a white person will then
say to the group: “So let me
explain to everyone what you were trying to say here..." Agency is taken away over and
over again. The individual can
reply with this possible example:
“What I said does not need any further explanation, and if any of you
are not clear, please ask me.”
In the book,
Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia, Margalynne J. Armstrong and Stephanie M. Wildman discuss using “Color
Insight” to help individuals see each other instead of seeing the
stereotype. “Color Insight”
dismantles the idea of “Color Blindness” by focusing on each person’s
background and perspective. They write:
One step to
develop color insight is for the parties in the conversation to reflect upon
and discuss whether their understanding of race has changed over their
lifetimes. Race is a moving target
that evolves and is rarely static ...
Eliminating the
operation of the presumption of incompetence in academic institutions requires
individual and institutional good faith.
A first step is to reflect on past incidents where women or people of
color have been subjected to a presumption of incompetence. Consider times when candidates or new
teachers have inexplicably struggled at the outset in your school or other
workplace. Were these colleagues
accorded a presumption fo competence?
Individuals must honestly assess their own attitudes and
perceptions. Ask yourself these
questions: Have you ever applied a
presumption of incompetence to a member of some group? Reflect on your role in faculty
decisions about tenure or hiring.
Have you been willing to point out the operation of privilege (for
example, when a colleague makes a statement such as “all it takes to be a good
teacher is preparation and hard work”)?
 |
| Margalynne J. Armstrong |
Institutional
good faith requires a diverse faculty and administration as well as an honest
and respectful environment in which people of different races, genders, sexual
orientation, and politics can disagree without fear of reprisal. Individual and institutional good faith
promotes the ability to work across racial lines that is necessary to challenge
the presumption of incompetence.
To work across racial lines requires recognizing that in the United
States, people continue to face racialization in many aspects of their lives. An individual’s racial identity or
perceived one affects that person’s experience and social interactions. In its aspiration to achieve a
color-blind society, contemporary culture downplays or even denies this
racialized reality. But acknowledging a racialized reality and its impact on
perception and reaction is an important element of transracial
cooperation. (233-4)
 |
| Stephanie M. Wildman |
This is key to
creating a more equitable community among faculty and administration. If we are not modeling “color insight”
(instead of “color blindness”), we are not providing our students with the
tools the will need to negotiate a diverse transnational world in which they
seek to work.
[E]thnic Studies
is different from disciplines like sociology, political science, and anthropology,
which tend to hide behind the curtain of scientific objectivity and present
issues by discussing numbers and an array of calculated theories designed to
provide some explanation for the numbers.
In fact, listening to my colleagues and friends in those disciplines
discuss their student evaluations, it appears that if professors in any of
these (and related) disciplines try to move beyond mere presentation of facts,
they are told to “shut up and teach.”
Because of its transdisciplinary methodology, ethnic studies is not a
shut-up-and-teach kind of discipline.
Ethnic studies does not hide behind the veil of objectivity, and in
fact, to be effective, it has to advocate and strive for a fundamental
transformation of race relations.
Stating that there is inequality is not enough. And here is where I come in: I am a Latina telling my mostly white
students that racism, discrimination, and inequality still exist and affect all
our lives (theirs included), both in ways that can be measured and ones that
cannot. I also tell them that they
are implicated in those things, that they must do something about them, and
that their comforts come at the expense of others. And, of course, they do not want to hear that. Especially not from me.
I can relate to
what Professor Lugo-Lugo describes in her classroom. However, imagine trying to explain these concepts to other
administrators and faculty—to ask them to consider their own implications, and
further—to request that they do something about this so that they will consider
“color insight” best practices at the level of faculty reappointments and
tenure reviews. Like Professor
Lugo-Lugo’s students, many do not want to hear it. They want to hold fast to their numerical metric systems of
evaluations because no explanations are needed, no room for discussion, it is
easy.
It has been an
interesting kind of education—looking behind the administrative curtain and
seeing what occurs at these levels.
We have a long way to go. A
few days ago on Facebook, someone posted a message about deciding against
graduate school because of hearing horrible stories of racism, sexism,
homophobia, etc. in academia. This
individual had seen his academic friends become isolated and quite demoralized.
I can understand, at the same time that I feel we must be here, we must be
present, we must stand up and be counted.
We must do the work while also supporting each other. We have to learn to take care of
ourselves within academia while we do the work. I have a colleague who is also my gym buddy. We make sure we
get to the gym and we make sure we talk through our own research work, our
difficult and stressful moments. Having supportive friends and partners is key
because academia is not going to change overnight. A strong support system makes a big difference.
1. National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS)
2. Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS)
3. Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa (SSGA)
4. The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS)
5. American Studies Association (ASA)
2 comments:
Thank you for this article. I taught Chicano Studies for 27 years. It was a struggle to keep the departments funded, but the students were great. Again, Thank you.
Thank you for this article. I taught Chicano Studies and wrote textbooks for 27 years. It was a struggle to keep the departments funded, but the students were great. Visit my on Facebook. Again, Thank you.
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